I've been using Arcade64 (MAMEUIFX fork) for a few years now. It doesn't have M+'s custom buttons but it does remove all the medal garbage and non-working drivers from the game list. And it keeps up-to-date with baseline MAME.

If you want sound in your Toaplan games, you'll have to find new romsets for the ones that didn't have it before.

knows if it either includes an English version download or if its compatible with an existing English translation patch. This link https://www.gensokyo.org/archives/2481 appears to be the English patch for the old version, but I have no idea if it will work with the currently purchasable version of the game.

I just ordered the first two Psikyo collections for my Switch, and I'm wondering if there are other worthwhile shmups with physical releases for the system?

Darius Cozmic Collection (Standard Edition - you won't find the Limited Edition for a good price but everything essential is in the Standard)Psyvariar Delta (seriously, probably one of the best shooters around at the moment)RXN got a physical, but I haven't played it enough to say if it's worthwhile yet. Starting to play it though.

There were releases of R-Type Dimensions and Danmaku Unlimited 3 through Strictly Limited and Limited Run Games respectively, but the ship sailed on those some time ago. I don't know about R-Type Dimensions, but the Danmaku Unlimited 3 is certainly worthwhile no matter how you play it.

TLDR: order Psyvariar Delta from PlayAsia or something. And make sure you have a controller with a half-decent d-pad.

Are there performance differences between the US and JPN versions of Xevious 3D/G+? I was thinking about getting it on the Japanese PSN but I noticed this on the game's Wikpedia page: "Most reviewers also found that the slowdown is so prevalent that it significantly interferes with enjoyment of the game.[6][7][8] Shawn Smith of Electronic Gaming Monthly contradicted this, reporting that while the Japanese version has considerable slowdown, it had been "virtually eliminated" from the North American release.[5]"

Is there any truth to that, and if so, is the slowdown at all different on PS3/Vita?

I'm playing Thundercross 2 at the moment and I was watching a video where someone stacked all the options into the center of the ship. How do you do that?

Shameless self-quotation:

"The option trick requires a rather specific set-up, I had to experiment for a while before I figured it out. In addition to your regular button for moving the options around, you need another one, this one with autofire (I find that 7.5hz works the best). Now you have to place the options as close to your ship as you can with the regular button, then hold down the dedicated button and it should work. It's a precise affair, though, you have to have them really close together before you can apply the actual trick. I'm absolutely certain you need to do this (and have 30hz autofire for your regular shots) from loop 6 onwards, it's impossible to breach the barrier in stage 4 otherwise."

It should be noted that while this stunt is required for high loops, you can make it through the first three loops or so just fine without it. It's nonetheless satisfying to pulverize bosses in mere moments, of course.

Oh man, am I that far behind? I think I'm using MamePlus 164 or something. I bet it's because I tend to stick to the MAMEs with GUIs. I should really break that habit.

I know you posted this an entire month ago, but MAME's built-in UI has been perfectly serviceable for years now and has a search function that lets you find whatever game you want to play in seconds. The "medal garbage and non-working drivers" don't really make a difference because you can just type in the romset name of your desired game and play without ever having to acknowledge their existence.

I'm playing Thundercross 2 at the moment and I was watching a video where someone stacked all the options into the center of the ship. How do you do that?

Shameless self-quotation:

"The option trick requires a rather specific set-up, I had to experiment for a while before I figured it out. In addition to your regular button for moving the options around, you need another one, this one with autofire (I find that 7.5hz works the best). Now you have to place the options as close to your ship as you can with the regular button, then hold down the dedicated button and it should work. It's a precise affair, though, you have to have them really close together before you can apply the actual trick. I'm absolutely certain you need to do this (and have 30hz autofire for your regular shots) from loop 6 onwards, it's impossible to breach the barrier in stage 4 otherwise."

It should be noted that while this stunt is required for high loops, you can make it through the first three loops or so just fine without it. It's nonetheless satisfying to pulverize bosses in mere moments, of course.

Haha that is so needlessly complex that it has to be a glitch. Oh well, if it's in the game its fair use. Thanks for the info, shmups forum will always have its place since it is a treasure grove of information on highly obscure shit.

How do you consistently trigger the very dense bullet pattern at the very end of Boss 1 in Espgaluda 2?

As seen in my video, i'm going for the upper right corner as required, but i still don't seem to trigger it. As far as i can tell, triggering AbsoluteAwakening too late results in even less bullets. I tried many times and i think maybe only a few times i managed to get a little over 5 mil. Usually i'm at ~ 4 mil. I've seen people earning more than 6 mil here.

What are people's impressions of the Xbox 360 port of Radiant Silvergun? Any interesting features compared to the Saturn version? Downsides?

There's an "Ikaruga mode" in the 360 port that adapts Ikaruga's chaining system to RSG (so you don't have to ignore half the enemies to score). Also there's options for higher fidelity graphics. Unfortunately the 360 port suffers from some input lag from what I hear.

_________________NTSC-J:You know STGs are in trouble when you have threads on how to introduce them to a wider audience and get more people playing followed by threads on how to get its hardcore fan base to play them, too.1CCs | Twitch | YouTube

Wondering which game someone well-versed in Toaplan shooters would consider a good starting point for someone wanting to try and tackle one seriously? I've played most of them over the years, but in sporadic bursts, and not with the sorts of frequency that allows me to compare them properly. Was playing some Twin Hawk last night and decided I'm going to sit down and dedicate some time to at least one of them, because I absolutely love their style.

V V, Tatsujin, or Hishozame.

OmegaFlareX wrote:

Daisenpuu (JP original of Twin Hawk) is apparently easier and more balanced, give that a try first. Also, once you have enemy placements memorized, you can pop a squadron and just hang out at the very top of the screen.

Everyone, please ignore this "advice".

WelshMegalodon wrote:

I know you posted this an entire month ago, but MAME's built-in UI has been perfectly serviceable for years now and has a search function that lets you find whatever game you want to play in seconds. The "medal garbage and non-working drivers" don't really make a difference because you can just type in the romset name of your desired game and play without ever having to acknowledge their existence.

The way the search works is even worse than the Windows UI version. Instead of actually giving you what you want, it has some kind of "relevancy" system that only bumps things it finds relevant to the top of the list; in many cases you don't even get what you want unless you know exactly what MAME happens to call it.

crazyrexz wrote:

greetings fellow shmupers , im playing raiden legacy on android today, i cant continue because credits is limited, is the credits can be adjusted with some tricks maybe ?

Don't play Raiden Legacy. It's a defective product.

horaceappleton wrote:

What are people's impressions of the Xbox 360 port of Radiant Silvergun? Any interesting features compared to the Saturn version? Downsides?

Daisenpuu (JP original of Twin Hawk) is apparently easier and more balanced, give that a try first. Also, once you have enemy placements memorized, you can pop a squadron and just hang out at the very top of the screen.

Everyone, please ignore this "advice".

I'm gonna have to jump in here to agree with OmegaFlareX's recommendation and disagree with Despatche again. After grabbing a clear and learning more about Daisenpuu, I still find it to be a worthwhile game to play. In fact, I find Daisenpuu with autofire + helpers (and hugging the top of the screen) to be more interesting and challenging than the first 14 loops of Vimana, all 3 loops of Fire Barrel, and Gekirindan. The "helper trick" that everyone likes to bring up doesn't ruin the game, and there should be no obligation to follow a ruleset where you can't use helpers. You shouldn't feel obligated to play it like Hishouzame because a few people don't enjoy playing with the helpers. Pulling off the "helper trick" requires knowledge and accurate execution, not to mention it becomes very difficult to pull off in the later loops. Losing a single helper will often cause your defensive wall to quickly crumble, leaving little room for error, and it's useless against the bosses (which means you will have to reset your helpers many times in a loop).

One other aspect that might appear cheap at first is the combination of the helper squadron and hugging the top of the screen. Since every enemy will aim its shots at the player, you can effectively protect your auxiliary unit that way whilst unleashing rapacious destruction. And there are indeed sections where rather simple movements and a iota of familiarity will reduce the difficulty by a lot. Nonetheless, if you plan on doing this for the entire game, you need both a precise route as well as unblemished execution as later enemies will immediatey kill you if you don't sit right on top of them. It might even be entirely impossible in certain sections of higher loops, and bosses are immune to such behaviour in any case. I have no qualms utilizing this strategy when I feel it is beneficial and reasonably consistent to use, I don't concur it trivializes the game any more than, say, a similarly thorough knowledge of Image Fight or War of Aero will deaden the challenge.

While I believe it's fair to dislike the helpers and play an alternate ruleset to suit others taste, the game is certainly not broken.

Giga Wing: I wonder if anyone knows the near-perfect multipliers for Ruby/Carmine.I guess that stage 1 should net you a 6M multiplier, and the gem/coin value should be at +3000 before the boss, and +4000 (wild guess!) after the boss. What about the other stages?

_________________Chomsky, Buckminster Fuller, Yunus and Glass would have played Battle Garegga, for sure.

Giga Wing: I wonder if anyone knows the near-perfect multipliers for Ruby/Carmine.I guess that stage 1 should net you a 6M multiplier, and the gem/coin value should be at +3000 before the boss, and +4000 (wild guess!) after the boss. What about the other stages?

Anyone have suggestions for something like Judgement Silversword and Eschatos, games without a ton of complexity to their scoring? I find that games are far more rewarding to grind when I don't need to read a long ass document to play them.

Wondering which game someone well-versed in Toaplan shooters would consider a good starting point for someone wanting to try and tackle one seriously? I've played most of them over the years, but in sporadic bursts, and not with the sorts of frequency that allows me to compare them properly. Was playing some Twin Hawk last night and decided I'm going to sit down and dedicate some time to at least one of them, because I absolutely love their style.

V V, Tatsujin, or Hishozame.

OmegaFlareX wrote:

Daisenpuu (JP original of Twin Hawk) is apparently easier and more balanced, give that a try first. Also, once you have enemy placements memorized, you can pop a squadron and just hang out at the very top of the screen.

Everyone, please ignore this "advice".

WelshMegalodon wrote:

I know you posted this an entire month ago, but MAME's built-in UI has been perfectly serviceable for years now and has a search function that lets you find whatever game you want to play in seconds. The "medal garbage and non-working drivers" don't really make a difference because you can just type in the romset name of your desired game and play without ever having to acknowledge their existence.

The way the search works is even worse than the Windows UI version. Instead of actually giving you what you want, it has some kind of "relevancy" system that only bumps things it finds relevant to the top of the list; in many cases you don't even get what you want unless you know exactly what MAME happens to call it.

crazyrexz wrote:

greetings fellow shmupers , im playing raiden legacy on android today, i cant continue because credits is limited, is the credits can be adjusted with some tricks maybe ?

Don't play Raiden Legacy. It's a defective product.

horaceappleton wrote:

What are people's impressions of the Xbox 360 port of Radiant Silvergun? Any interesting features compared to the Saturn version? Downsides?

How do I turn off Raiden Fighters 2's 2nd loop in the mame original board rom? Last night I 1-ALLed it for the first time and it unexpectedly went into a 2nd loop . There doesn't seem to be an option in service mode.

Also, is the 10mil point bonus at the end of a 1 loop clear (with loop 2 being turned off) just for beating it on a single credit?

I've been working on purchasing console/dedicated PC hardware for playing STGs. I have everything covered by Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, NEC, etc. I was told to look at a Sharp X68000 and MSX2. Does anyone have any other suggestions?